Coat hangers and takeaway cups found in Porirua’s recycling

An audit of Porirua’s recycling has confirmed contamination is occurring regularly.

This month, recycling ambassadors have been out around the city on recycling days in their electric vehicle. During the first two weeks of inspections, four collection days exceeded the 14 per cent contamination threshold, meaning that recycling load must go to the landfill. The highest day of contamination was 33 per cent.

So far a total of 3773 bins have been inspected and 13 per cent of those were contaminated.

The recycling ambassadors will continue to check recycling as the start of Porirua’s 3-Strikes Process nears on 28 February – once this begins, if we find non-recyclable or contaminated items in your bin, you’ll get a warning sticker. If you receive two warning stickers and a red card, you could lose your bin.

The main problem reported by the ambassadors is general household rubbish all mixed in together, Porirua’s ManagerWater & Waste, David Down, said.

“Nearly two-thirds of the contaminated recycling bins found during the audit so far has general household items in it, such as takeaway and coffee containers, polystyrene, plastic food containers, dirty nappies, tissues and food wrappers,” he said.

“We’ve also had really odd items like basketballs, coat hangers, handbags and chipboard. Things like this mean that other potentially valuable recycling material is ending up in the landfill.”

A common mistake is leaving lids on bottles.

“Please, remember to remove your lids from all plastic and glass bottles and jars. Anything smaller than a credit card can’t be recycled – it is too small to be processed correctly,” Mr Down said.

It is important Porirua gets its recycling right, so we have sent flyers to all Porirua residents, explaining the 3-Strikes Process in detail. There is also a short video on our website explaining how to recycle correctly, and you can always ring our contact centre on 04 237 5089 to ask questions.

Similar initiatives are occurring in other cities, including Hamilton, Christchurch and Dunedin.